April 30, 2015—The winners of the 2015 National Automotive Technology competition were announced on Wednesday in New York City.
Tony Litz and Nick Schroeder, students at Wallenpaupack Area High School in Hawley, Pa., finished in first place.
The competition, which is the auto industry's largest school-to-work initiative, pits the nation's best high school automotive vocational education students against one another for the title of "America's Top Technicians."
The national competition includes 10 workstations (job interview, CAN Bus (controller area network), STEM, brakes, wheel alignment and balance, wiring repair, information retrieval, hybrid vehicle repair, mechanical, SP/2 shop safety) and diagnosing and fixing a "bugged" automobile.
Each team of students is assigned an automobile that is rigged to malfunction in a number of ways. Using a repair order with actual customer complaints, the student teams must diagnose and repair the problem within the allotted time, using the manufacturer's specialty tools. Each "bug" correctly diagnosed and repaired is worth a number of points, depending on the level of difficulty.
"Computer systems dominate today's new cars and trucks so the students who make it to the finals of this Competition have shown that they have an extraordinary ability to combine highly technical knowhow with problem solving abilities. We need these highly motivated and talented young people in dealerships across the country to make sure vehicle owners have access to technicians with the best computer and technical skills," said Mark Schienberg, president of the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association.
This year, prizes and scholarships totaling more than $3 million were awarded to the participants.
